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ple. Jenkins published a total of eight novels and one collection of
short stories that are set abroad; all of these, except Leila (1995), are
published during the period 1960 to 1974. Although the novels
and stories that are based on his years abroad make up almost a
third of Jenkins’s overall achievement, these have not received
much critical attention, as pointed out in 2010 by Bernard Sellin
(Sellin 2010: n.p.). This is the case even though some of these texts
can be counted among the finest of Jenkins’s writing.
A central feature of Jenkins’s writing is the intense examination
of the moral inconsistencies and hypocrisies of human nature; his
fiction forces us to see ourselves as we really are, and shocks us into
recognising our moral weaknesses. Throughout his work, Jenkins
toys with the idea of attainable moral perfection, that pure good-
ness can exist in a world of selfishness and greed. At the same time,
his narratives stress the near impossibility of achieving such good-
ness through showing that humanity is by nature morally fallible
and limited.1 Experiencing other cultures and environments during
his years abroad provided Jenkins with a different angle from which
to address these central moral questions. Thus, in the words of
Glenda Norquay, Jenkins’s travels “allowed him to develop further
the themes of moral alienation and the limits of human understand-
ing which were central to the concerns of his Scottish novels”
(Norquay 1985: 269). In many of these “foreign” texts, Jenkins
explores racial prejudice and cultural conflict within the framework
of the dubious legacy of British imperialism; indeed, his moral
questioning is even further manifested when presented in the am-
biguous and controversial context of racial difference, colonial sub-
jugation, and the redefinition of identity and purpose among
British expatriates in a postcolonial world.
Jenkins’s foreign fiction clearly indicates the author’s critique of
the imperial enterprise while posing many significant questions in
relation to Britain’s relationship with its former colonies, and about
1 While morality and the quest for pure goodness are inherently linked with Jenkins’s interrogation
of racial difference, the legacy of imperialism, and other themes dealt with in this paper, Jenkins’s
moral questioning is nevertheless not the main focus here, as this aspect of Jenkins’s writing has
been amply discussed elsewhere. See, for example: Ágústsdóttir 2001; Ágústsdóttir 2006; Baker
2010; Miller 2008; Norquay 1985; Norquay 1986; Norquay 1987; Thompson 1963.
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